Bagpiperix in the Crystal Empire

"Hey, Octy, how come you're so..."

Vinyl Scratch's speech slowed, as she beheld what was in the room. Octavia still hadn't noticed, and she listened and watched for several seconds before her curiosity got too much for her.

"...Tavi?" Vinyl asked, head tilted. "The heck?"

Octavia turned, bouncing three times so she was facing the door – any embarrassment she might have felt about being seen bounding up and down on her bagpiaper like this more than washed away by the excitement about being able to show her friend the joys of her new musical style! "Oh, hey, Vinyl! How's my playing? I think I'm getting pretty good!"

"That's just... not what I was expecting at all," Vinyl admitted, watching as Octavia's... instrument?... squished out as her weight landed on it before springing back again. "How long has this been going on?"

Octavia shrugged, producing a loud paaarp as she hit the ground, and Vinyl's worry grew.

"I think we need to get somepony to sort this out," she said, taking a step back. "Some kind of magical expert, or psychiatrist, or something-"

As she moved towards the door, Octavia decided the best thing to do was to prevent Vinyl leaving any way she could.

“Vinyl, come on, you haven’t even heard the best songs!” Octavia said, rolling forward to stand up. It was quite the feat, with bagpiaper so swollen only the tips of her hind hooves could reach the floor to help carry her forward as her hips swayed in wide arcs, tail swishing across the plaid material slowly. “Give it a chance, I promise you’ll like it! It’s much more fun than that boring old classical stuff I use to play!” She pleaded.

Vinyl’s wasn’t dissuaded. In fact, at Octavia’s mention of “boring” classical music, she only started to worry more. “Nope, we gotta get this taken care of now! You just get back to practicing, you won’t even notice I left!” She said, trying to get Octavia to stop her advances. She stepped out of the room, but Octavia wasn’t about to let her leave so easily. Waddling forward, Octavia was paused only for a moment as her thick bagpiaper squeezed into the doorframe with a Paarp before she popped through.

With several creaky, parpy ‘boings’, Octavia bounced after Vinyl, somehow easily managing to catch up and pin the DJ beneath her rear. She wobbled in place as she tried to keep her balance while Vinyl pressed helplessly up into the plaid material squeezing down upon her.

"You just need to be reasonable about it!" Octavia explained, bouncing up and down a little, with every movement or compression of the bagpiaper producing softer, squeakier versions of the notes from before. "It's just a new instrument! And you've been telling me I should pick up a new kind of music for years!"

"Yeah, but... not like this!" Vinyl replied, still trying to wiggle out from under the cushy plaid bulk. She only managed to produce a sequence of staccato parps, blushing slightly at the silly sound. "And why aren't you getting off me?"

"I want to make sure we've talked all this out!" Octavia said firmly. "You were going to run off and get someone, and that would just be weird!"

"This is what's weird," Vinyl mumbled.

"Is it?" Octavia asked, still bouncing up and down absently, producing a series of parps and paaaaarps which hung in the air. "It's still an instrument! I had to stand silly when I used the cello, anyway, and you know as well as me what it's like when you really get into a new instrument, right?"

Vinyl had to think hard before replying – the music was oddly catchy, and she kept thinking about it instead.

Vinyl shook her head to try and clear it before shifting her gaze back up to Octavia. “Yeah, but… you’re waaaay too into this, Tavi! There’s being excited for a new instrument and then there’s” Vinyl’s complaints were cut off as a particularly large bounce from Octavia caused her bagpiaper to swell outwards, squishing into Vinyl’s muzzle before she rebounded, the cloth deflating just enough to allow the trapped unicorn to speak again.

“Oh, nonsense! What’s a little harm in playing a new instrument? I’ll get back to my Cello eventually, it’s not like I have anything important coming up anyway!” She said, closing her eyes and bouncing happily again, leaning left and right to produce a series of chords.

Vinyl watched Octavia grin widely as she bounced, looking so content and pleased with herself atop her new instrument. If it really was that much fun, maybe…

“But, Tavi, what about your recital this weekend? You’ve been practicing months for that!” Vinyl interjected, trying to think of something to snap Octavia out of her fascination with her new garment-instrument.

Octavia’s bouncings halted for a moment as her eyes went wide. Oh goodness, Vinyl was right! She had a recital in three days! And she hadn’t touched her cello in at least a week! “Oh dear… oh my…” Octavia absentmindedly massaged her bagpiaper, producing simple tunes as she shifted nervously about. “I do have that coming up don’t I? And all those ponies would hate for it to be canceled…”

Vinyl let out a soft sigh of relief at Octavia’s worry. Maybe she’d at least ditch this weird instrument for a few days of panic practicing. “See? Now, mmpphh, come on, let’s get you out of this and back to your cello, alright?” She said, trying in vain to roll Octavia off of her.

“Oh, yes, Vinyl, you’re so right! I need to practice extra hard to make sure I’m ready! I just hope nopony minds a bit of a change in the program.” Octavia said as she rocked back and forth.

“A… change in the program?” Vinyl asked, no longer comforted.

Octavia nodded nervously as she bounced a few times. “Of course! With how little I’ve touched my cello, I don’t have a choice but to perform with my bagpiaper, don’t I?”

Vinyl gaped for a moment, then shut her muzzle with a snap. "That's... not what I meant at all!" she protested. "I meant-"

The bagpiaper squished down again, interrupting her, and she felt the material resonate as an extra-loud paaaaarp pumped through the pipes in four-part harmony.

What had she been worried about again?

It took Vinyl a moment to remember, but then she shook her head. "W-wait, that's not – it's a cello recital, not a bagpiaper blowout!"

Octavia sniggered. "I like that! Bagpiaper blowout..."

More paarps resonated though the house, floor, walls, ceiling, and through Vinyl as well. Each note seemed to jar her perceptions, and the loudest ones made hash out of her ability to concentrate on the topic at hoof.

"...don't see why anyone should complain, really," Octavia was saying. "I mean, do you think it's terrible music?"

She punctuated the question with a five-part sequence of oom-pa-paarps, and Vinyl felt dazed for a moment before shaking her head a bit reluctantly. "I... well, I don't think it's terrible, no..."

The next note felt like a reward for her grudging admission, thrilling through her and making her feel pleasantly dizzy. It was sort of like being drunk, in an odd way...

“Indeed, it’s a much more enjoyable style I’d say!” Octavia said proudly as she gave her bagpiaper another squeeze. It’s just so much fun to bounce along to the music! Why, it even goes wub wub wub like your dances!” Octavia added, giggling. She bounced on her bagpiaper, each time she lifted into the air and landed with a wobbly, parpy wub making Vinyl’s already cloudy mind even more confused.

“Heh… yeah, I suppose it does…” Vinyl said, blushing at the feeling of Octavia’s bagpiaper smothering her with each bounce. Another happy tune emanated from the instrument, and Vinyl was starting to see just what Octavia saw in her new songs. “B-but… I don’t know, this still seems…” Vinyl couldn’t quite find the word she was looking for. The instrument was… something. But what that something was, Vinyl couldn’t quite say.

Octavia just hummed to herself as she played, using the pipes as leverage to increase her ability to rock back and forth. “Absurd? Odd? Silly? That’s half the fun of it, Vinyl! I bet the moment you try them out, you’ll be having just as much fun as I am!” She looked down over the mass of her swollen plaid padding at her stuck friend. “What do you say? I’m sure we can get the music shop owner to get you a pair to practice with tomorrow!”

Vinyl stared back up at Octavia. Despite her earlier misgivings, the prospect of playing the bagpiaper did sound… fun. Especially with a good friend like Tavi. And if she didn’t like it, she could just return them, right?”

Vinyl gave a slow nod, finding herself smiling back up at Octavia. “Y-yeah… that sounds like a great idea!”

Octavia let out an uncharacteristic squeal of excitement, bouncing up off of Vinyl to allow her to get to her hooves. “Ooh, I’m sure you’ll love them! Come on, let’s hurry up and get you yours right now!”

Vinyl stammered, still blushing as Octavia tugged her to the door. “W-w-wait! With you still in-?”

They were out the door before Vinyl could finish her thought.

The capital of the Crystal Empire was lit by glowing crystal streetlamps, which shone down crystal streets and reflected off crystal buildings.

It was late enough that the crystal streetlamps were the main source of illumination, aside from the faint glow of the (not crystal) shield dome over the entire Empire, and Vinyl looked nervously around in case someone else was watching.

Octavia had stopped bouncing along on her bagpiaper, but was instead waddling along with the swollen instrument strapped around her hips and reaching nearly to the floor. Every sway produced a paarp which seemed as loud as thunder to Vinyl's tense ears, and she kept wanting to ask Octavia to try and be quiet – or at least keep to the alleyways or something, in case someone came along.

Yet, whenever she was about to say it, she stopped and decided against it. The paaarp was quite pleasant, really, and seemed almost reassuring in an odd way – and Octavia's steady, quick-but-not-hurried trot gave it a definite beat which soothed away the sharp edges of Vinyl's embarrassment and alarm.

Once she saw somepony trotting past, on an errand of their own, and flushed as she tried not to do anything that might attract attention.

It would be so parp

It would parp

Well maybe it wouldn't parp be too bad parp

Vinyl shook her head, confused. What had she been thinking again?

Octavia took a few more steps forward as Vinyl paused, only to stop and look over her shoulder. “Come on, Vinyl, it’s this way!” She said, still leaning left and right on her hooves to keep the beat of the music her waddling had produced. Vinyl nodded, following after Octavia. She must have just forgotten the way, that was all. Considering it was Octavia who knew where this place was anyway, it just made sense she should lead. Vinyl’s eyes drifted to Octavia’s swaying padding, watching it swish back and forth with each step, unable to stop herself from grinning at this silly sight as her hooves started to trot in step with the music too.

She had become so enamored by Octavia’s rump that she almost collided with it when the earth pony had come to a stop outside the music shop’s door. She was staring in through the window, trying to make out the shape of anypony inside. She gave a few taps on the glass, and the head of the owner popped out from a back room. He trotted up to the door, pushing it open. “You’re here awful late, I was just about to close up. Everything alright?” He asked. His eyes drifted from Vinyl to Octavia, to the swollen plaid padding around her rear. “Hehe, I see you’re taking to your new instrument… in a way.” He chuckled a little awkwardly.

“Oh, yes, it’s been an absolute joy to play! It’s why I’m here, really. I’m so sorry to bother you so late, but would you mind making a second set for my friend here?” Octavia asked, indicating Vinyl. Vinyl waved hello, not sure what to say to explain why she was interested in a set of plaid flank bagpipes herself.

The owner looked a little confused, and was about to say it was far too late for him to take such an odd request when Octavia squeezed her hind legs together, leaning forward just a bit. “Please? I know this is an inconvenience, but I’m sure you can understand our excitement!”

The paarp from her padding made the owner’s eyes droop a little, only for him to rub them and look her up and down. “I… suppose it isn’t all that odd of a request. I’ll have them done first thing tomorrow.” He said. Octavia grinned widely bouncing on her hooves with several puffy paarps of appreciation.

“Oh, thank you! Vinyl, we’re going to have so much fun practicing tomorrow!”

After several hours of fitful sleep – alternately kept awake by worry and lulled by the gentle wheezing parps of bagpiapers in the next room over – Vinyl was ready for her first practice session with her plump new instrument, which Octavia had picked up for her while she was having breakfast.

Vinyl really didn't want to ask about exactly how that had happened, but here she was...

"So, uh... is this on right?" she asked.

"Well, it's not really tight enough, but that's because you've not used it enough," Octavia replied, turning the pages of her music book to the start. "Okay, so you're going to want to do... this."

She sat down hard on her bagpiaper, producing a harmonious wheeze.

"How?" Vinyl asked. "I don't get how half the holes work..."

"Just sit down, the notes can come later," Octavia told her.

Still dubious, Vinyl duly sat down hard, and her eyes widened at the result.

It actually did sound pretty good! Not great, mind, but pretty good, and the feeling of making her own parping tune gave her a happy little smile for a moment.

If she had to learn an instrument, instead of remixing stuff, this was probably a pretty good one based on that...

Octavia looked to be equally pleased at Vinyl’s first sound, giving her bagpiaper a soft poke as she leaned forward on her own. “That was wonderful, Vinyl! Now, try rocking around a bit, like this…” Octavia dutifully demonstrated by bouncing about, her bagpiaper letting out several more wheezes and whines.

Vinyl nodded and tried to replicate Octavia’s movements, her own bagpiaper’s wheezes a little quieter and not quite as crisp as Octavia’s, but just as bouncy and full of energy. Her bagpiaper puffed and squeaked beneath her as she played, Octavia eagerly flipping to the next few pages in her practice book to move to the next lesson… and the next… and the next!

Vinyl was picking up the instrument even faster than Octavia had, and that only made the two of them even more excited! They played and bounced and rocked about on their bagpiapers as they blew out. Vinyl let out a laugh as she bounced up into the air, landing with a loud paaaaaarp! “Heeheehee, this is awesome, Tavi! Why’d you keep it such a secret?”

That was a good question, actually... why had she tried to keep this hidden?

Octavia frowned for a moment, wondering at her own motivation, then shrugged it off. "I guess I just hadn't decided the best way to introduce it!"

She bounced again, blowing a long sequence of notes, and both of them accepted her answer as being the most sensible explanation.

As she did, she noticed that her bounces were getting more floaty as the air quantity in the bagpiaper increased – Vinyl's was growing too, and indeed it looked like it was nearly too big to actually take off, but Octavia's one was getting so big she might have had trouble fitting through doors had it not been for the way it would clearly squish in.

She turned the pages of the book, one after another, and each one taught her and Vinyl new tricks of the trade – new and sophisticated ways to perform their musical magic, including several pages on using two bagpiapers together! The notes that could be created by squishing one bagpiaper into the other had a whole new burst of energy, and Octavia wondered why she hadn't noticed such interesting tricks early on.

If she had, she might have recruited Vinyl earlier just to try them out!

Octavia rolled forward, trying to stand up only for her hooves to wiggle about and fail to reach anything except the bulge of her bagpiaper as the front sank down into the ground. “Oh dear, perhaps I over puffed it.” She said a little softly, before giggling to herself. As if there was such a thing as overpuffed~“Vinyl, would you mind?” She asked, turning her head and pointing to the book. Vinyl looked eagerly on as she continue to rock back and forth to produce the constant droning of their bagpiapers. She grinned widely and bounced over behind Octavia before rolling onto her own hooves. She bent over, wiggling her rear left and right as if she was putting on a show before she bounced back, her puffy rump sinking into Octavia’s plaid bagpiaper. There was a loud harmonious Paarrraaaarp! before Octavia’s padding rebounded, sending Vinyl flying and skipping on her butt with a descending parp, parp, parp.

The two laughed at the absurd sound, Octavia bouncing her hips up and down to keep the tune going as the cushion of air around her hips hugged her gently. She suddenly let out a gasp as a wonderfully musically silly idea popped into her head. “Vinyl, do it again!” She said eagerly. Vinyl was more than happy to do so, waddling back, wiggling her hips and bouncing backwards. As she sank into Octavia’s padding, however, Octavia flicked her rear upwards as best as she could, sending Vinyl bouncing up to land on the crest of her bagpiaper. The unicorn bounced up and down on her own bagpiaper as they played, each Paarp extra bouncy and cheery sounding with each impact as their bagpiapers squished together.

Both bagpiaper-padded ponies lost track of time in a big way as they made their music, driving one another to learn faster and faster as they blazed their way through the rest of the book. They parped and played in musical combinations neither of them had considered before, musicians though they were, and by the time they stopped their bagpiapers filled most of the room and it had gone dark outside.

"Phew!" Octavia said, bouncing up and down a little on her bagpiaper – the notes helping her think, helping her stay on-task. "That was great – say, Vinyl, you know that recital I've got?"

Vinyl nodded, the movement setting her own bagpiaper bouncing up and down again. "I sure do! Are you going to be playing your bagpiaper?"

"That's right!" Octavia agreed. "And I was thinking I should do something else too – I should invite you along to join in! I bet that would be a great dual performance!"

"Sounds great!" Vinyl agreed, entranced with the idea of playing her new instrument before a crowd... then looked down at the air-filled bulk. "But, uh... we might have trouble getting there..."

Octavia pondered that, then checked the back of the book for tips. There was a section on how to deflate a bagpiaper if it absolutely needed to be done, and she followed the instructions exactly – bouncing up and down a few times before bringing her weight down in a long singing paaaaaaaarp which went on and on, echoing around the room with greater and greater intensity. Especially as Vinyl joined in, copying Octavia, and by the time they were done their bagpiapers were only a little puffy and their minds were full of plaid notes bouncing around and around.

Ponies trotted through the lobby of the Crystal Empire’s concert hall, the diamond encrusted ceiling glittering in the lights as the ushers directed ponies to their seats. They were all talking amongst each other, each just as excited to see what this new player was going to perform. It wasn’t long before the lights were dimming and the few stragglers hurried to reach their spots.

A hush fell over the audience as the curtains began to rise to reveal two ponies standing side by side… each wearing a thick diaper like garment around their hips in plaid colors to match their coats and manes. The silence stayed for only a moment before a bit of confused muttering broke out among the patrons. Wasn’t there supposed to only be one player? Nevermind that, what in Equestria are they wearing? And where are their instruments? Wasn’t this a recital?

The muttering grew a little louder before an odd sound cut them all off. A very odd sound. Something rather like a…

Paaarp!~

Octavia and Vinyl had sat down on their bagpiapers, each posing and smiling as they began to slowly bounce, their bagpiapers creating a tune that started to fill the room.

"Preposterous," one of the stallions in the audience declared. "This is vulgar and uncouth."

He rose to leave, just as Octavia bounced twice in quick succession – creating a parr-arrrp sound which echoed through the excellent accoustics of the concert hall.

The stallion hesitated, and Vinyl swung her bagpiaper against Octavia's – producing a harmonic parparp, one which made him blink a little before sitting quite firmly back down.

He felt a little dizzy... probably just from standing up so quickly. It wouldn't be a big problem...

Both ponies' bagpipe diapers swelled as they played, quickly expanding back to a more instrumentally useful size, and the notes swelled as well. Despite the parp-producing properties of the poof the ponies played, harmonies and melodies developed which lent nuance and sophistication to the piece.

Despite his earlier protestations, the stallion began to nod his head in time – it was unusual, perhaps, but there did seem to be merit in this odd performance. And it wasn't as though he'd heard of every instrument out there, after all...

Octavia and Vinyl bounced in place, the piece picking up speed as their playing became more energetic and playful. Octavia bounced enough to lift her rump into the air, the bagpiaper producing a double pa-parp when she landed and her weight came fully down onto her instrument. She grinned and closed her eyes as she leaned left and right, Vinyl squeezing the rump of her bagpiaper to fill the room with an extra loud note. The two got to their hooves, turning and pushing their bagpiapers together, only for them to balloon outwards and send them bouncing away from each other. The pair rebounded back to the center of the stage with several parps, each one making their plaid puffy pampers blimp up further.

Vinyl rolled forward, her hooves pressing down into the front of Octavia’s bagpiaper, only to roll back and allow Octavia to do the same to her.

As they bounced and played, they were oblivious to something else swelling out that wasn’t just their bagpiapers, though it was obvious to the entire audience. Plaid material began to stretch and creak up over their tails, wrapping it up and swelling larger, becoming long, noodly, and distinctly draconic. At the tip a pipe pushed out of the bundled fabric, which was starting to play along with the other pipes on the instrument, adding even more strange complexity to the song.

The draconic-pipe tails danced as the air hissed though them, waving about and playing music like an inverse charmed snake, and several of the ponies in the audience began to sway back and forth a little in reaction. Others just listened, the strange transformation drawing nothing more than frowns and a few confused mutters.

Every press, pump, parp and breath of air swelled the music, and it swelled the bagpiapers as well – though by now they were more than merely diapers in shape, as their swelling continued to cause them to change form. Both performing ponies' hind legs vanished into the soft embrace of the colour-coordinated plaid, vanishing from view, and the patterned material spread up as well towards the shoulders of their forelegs.

While unaware consciously of the change, both Octavia and Vinyl adjusted their style to suit – taking advantage of the new parts, the new tail-shape in particular, and bounced around more to get around. It was almost a dance, as Octavia moved in four-four time and Vinyl in something more esoteric, and their melodies combined to transfix their enraptured audience and send plaid parps pulsing through the ponies patronising the performance.

Octavia flopped forward onto her tail, catching it between her inflating plaid rump and the floor. Her side of the song muffled to allow Vinyl to stand out, though the trapped air caused her own butt to swell even larger and faster. Vinyl took advantage, standing upon her tail as if it was her own, balancing in the air as her front hooves rubbed and squeezed and pressed down on her growing belly. She squeezed her hind legs together as best as she could, but with them swallowed completely, all she could do was wiggle them about. Despite this, the music followed her movements, trilling and wobbling about almost as much as Octavia’s growing rear.

Vinyl suddenly let her tail drop out from under her, her rear falling to the floor to pierce the music with a large bass drum like Boom! And with that puff the plaid material swelled over her forelegs, leaving them in something like a set of overswollen plaid pajamas. Octavia’s bagpiaper was just as big and bouncy, the audience applauding as the two managed to twist their tails together and bounce their rumps up and down, as if skipping rope with them.

Bigger

Bwoomp!

Bouncier

Bwoomp!

Creakier

Bwoomp!

Blimpier!

Bwoomp!

The two bounced and played, their song crescendoing as they started to become engulfed by their former puffy instruments.

One of the mares in the audience hall, Noteworthy Notes, blinked slowly.

She was trying to remember what she'd been thinking. There had to be something – she was a music critic, after all, and so she should have a critique of this musical performance – but whenever she tried to form a reasoned opinion of the music it just evaporated.

The music was good, certainly – bouncy and full of energy, it had a strong beat and she could listen to it for a very long time. But 'good' wasn't much of a review... and she was sure she should be thinking something about the way the performing ponies now had little more than their heads sticking out of their instruments, playing notes out of the tubes along their spines to complement the rest of the performance.

But... how did that work, exactly? Wouldn't they have been playing the same instruments for the whole performance?

Neither Octavia nor Vinyl had noticed Noteworthy Notes' confusion, though if they had they wouldn't have cared. The ongoing expansion and transformation of their bagpiapers into bagpiaper-suits was just too enjoyable – too obvious, too wonderful – to object to, and it seemed like nothing more nor less than how things should be. After all, weren't they doing so wonderfully well at bringing their music to the whole audience?

The new appendages and additions to their instruments felt natural, obvious, and the way to use them felt just the same – like flexing a limb more than playing an instrument.

Octavia rocked back and forth on her rump, squeezing the plaid material between her plushly coated hind legs as her forelegs hugged herself to produce even more loud paaarps. Meanwhile Vinyl was doing her best to show off by bouncing on her tail, balancing on one foreleg and managing to blow so much air out of her pipes she lifted herself into the air before falling back to earth and deflating into herself somewhat.

The show was so mesmerizing even the ushers weren’t able to focus on their duties – instead transfixed by the bloating, bouncing, puffy, plaid posteriors in front of them. And it was slowly becoming more and more difficult to tell the things bouncing around on stage were ponies at all! Hoods puffed out of the material, closing over each of the performers’ heads. And even more absurd (if that was possible in this show!), the hoods looked quite a bit like the maws of dragons. The song was growing louder and faster, clearly building to its climactic finale. The two bounced higher, and higher, their heads practically hitting the ceiling until they both flopped forward, landing so their bellies squished their tails into the stage, a wave of music washing out over the audience as the jaws of their hoods closed, and the two looked to simply be a pair of bagpipe dragons with overblown plaid bodies.

Now distinguished mainly not by cutie marks, coat or mane but by plaid colour and pattern, Octavia and Vinyl paused – the music seeming to hesitate, as if it were gathering in a breath.

Both bagpipe dragons began to bounce again, higher and higher, but the tension in the music remained – until it went silent for a single second, as both bounced so high they brushed the ceiling.

Then they landed, and the harmonious notes of parp and paaarp echoed through the room. Building, resonating, making the whole building tremble and fill with harmonics and counterpoints and endless permutations of music which caught the listeners and whirled them away in a captivating chorus.

As the ponies in the audience listened – too enraptured to applaud, even if the music had come to an end instead of building and building and building – something else began to take shape, as well. A bubble of plaid, blowing out of the tip of Vinyl's tuneful tail.

Octavia's tail swung to join it, a bubble forming on her own tail as well, and then the bubbles came into contact – merging together into a single bubble with two sources, which pulsed with the beat of the music and took on a red-and-purple plaid pattern as it grew faster and faster.

The bubble swelled, pressing into the sides of Octavia and Vinyl, who both leaned into it as they pressed down on their bellies to make more air rush out of their tails and into the swelling bubble. Limbs began to form, made of the same tough wood as the pipes now protruding from the top. A long snake-like tail whipped out, playfully huffing and blowing music into the performing dragon’s faces. The dragons giggled and looked a bit drunk off of the song, tails twisting about with excitement as the bubble grew even larger than them! It swelled, and swelled, and swelled, pushing them apart towards the edges of the stage as it filled more and more space.

There was a particularly loud paaaarp! as the two were pushed off, landing atop a few of the members in the front row and squishing them beneath their soft, creaky forms. The bubble wobbled, limbs squeezing itself as its tail knocked against the back of the set, when the head of the creature finally revealed itself, popping up out of its bouncy body to look down at the adoring crowd. Bagpiperix grinned widely, doing his best to stand and pose dramatically.

“Hello, Crystal Empire! I hope you’re all ready for the biggest show you’ve ever seen!”